Informed Seattle: Collective Sensemaking Infrastructure with AI Supported Legislative Plain Text Summaries
Problem
Democratic participation is unequally distributed because civic information is unequally accessible.
Every week, local governments make decisions that shape housing affordability, transportation, public safety, climate resilience, disability services, childcare, and public health. While these decisions are technically public, they are rarely understandable to the people most affected by them.
Residents with fewer resources—working parents, renters, immigrants, people with disabilities, young adults, and those unfamiliar with legal or bureaucratic language—often cannot afford the time or expertise required to interpret legislation before decisions are made.
As a result, public participation disproportionately reflects organizations and individuals who already possess the time, knowledge, and relationships to navigate government. This creates a feedback loop where the people most impacted by policy are the least represented in designing it.
The challenge isn’t civic apathy.
It’s a failure of civic information infrastructure.
Solution
Informed Seattle builds civic information infrastructure to make government understandable before decisions are finalized.
The project translates complex Seattle City Council legislation into human-reviewed, plain-language summaries customized to different communities’ interests and needs.
Rather than telling residents what to think, it equips them with timely, accessible information so they can understand proposed policies and decide whether—and how—they want to participate.
The long-term vision goes beyond information:
- Learn: Make legislation understandable.
- Connect: Help residents share their perspective and see the perspectives of others.
- Engage: Support meaningful participation through existing democratic channels.
Today, we’re focused on building and testing the Learn layer because well-informed participation starts with understanding.
Impact
The intended impact isn’t simply better communication.
It’s more equitable participation in civic decision-making.
By lowering the barriers to understanding legislation, Informed Seattle aims to make civic participation fairer.
- Increase participation from residents who have historically been excluded from policy conversations.
- Shift civic engagement from reactive advocacy after decisions are made to well-informed participation while decisions are still being shaped.
- Help governments hear from a wider and more representative cross-section of the communities they serve.
- Build confidence through openness by making government more legible and accountable.
- Strengthen democratic institutions by making participation possible without necessitating expertise in lawmaking processes.
Ultimately, the project supports at-risk groups by reducing one of the most persistent barriers to civic power: unequal access to understandable information.